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lines and waits for a SC outside of CA is quite unusual, I've been on many road trips, over 40 different SCs visited and rarely encounter more than 1 or 2 other cars charging, the majority of times I am the only car.

Remember, most cars are going to charge 20-30 minutes. If there are eight stalls, rotations happen on average about every 3 or so minutes. Waiting is uncommon anyway, and not near as devastating as some people imagine.
Secondly, the information about charging spots will be old news by the time you get there. If you're 20 miles from the charger, most everyone will have rotated out.
Thirdly, where ya gonna go if you see the charger is full? It's not like you choose another gas station. Chargers are maybe 100-150 miles apart, and if you're looking for a charger, you have no choice.

As stated Waze is crowd sourced and anecdotally sometimes false data is entered.
As examples:

I pass a Tesla SC and see cars there - I report on Waze that the SC is crowded. 10 minutes later I am gone, but maybe most of those cars have charged and have left. So, basically, 10 minutes later, even if the Waze report was true, it no longer applies for your arrival.

Accidents reported on Waze are helpful - sometimes.
There may be multiple reports of the same incident, but Waze reports as multiple incidents. I suspect because reports may be made up to a mile in either direction.
Also, sometimes false info is reported to hopefully redirect traffic away from where I want to go.

Does the Supercharger feature even work? I tried it last night and again just now and both times it showed zero stalls in use for every Supercharger remotely nearby. It also shows Newark, DE at 0/4, and that site has been upgraded to 12 stalls as of last week sometime. I'm pretty sure that there's at least one car using at least one of Woodbridge/Bethesda/Newark at any given moment during the day, but it shows zero for all. I even scrolled all the way over to San Francisco and all of those say zero too. Unless it's failing specifically for me, I'd say the answer to the question of where the data comes from is "nowhere."

Does the Supercharger feature even work? I tried it last night and again just now and both times it showed zero stalls in use for every Supercharger remotely nearby. It also shows Newark, DE at 0/4, and that site has been upgraded to 12 stalls as of last week sometime. I'm pretty sure that there's at least one car using at least one of Woodbridge/Bethesda/Newark at any given moment during the day, but it shows zero for all. I even scrolled all the way over to San Francisco and all of those say zero too. Unless it's failing specifically for me, I'd say the answer to the question of where the data comes from is "nowhere."

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the info presented is only as good as the info that is inputted by users. The info is generated by users inputting data not by any sort of actual real time usage metering. I never report my stops and I bet more people do not use these report features than do use them.

the info presented is only as good as the info that is inputted by users. The info is generated by users inputting data not by any sort of actual real time usage metering. I never report my stops and I bet more people do not use these report features than do use them.

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Which is basically the same as not working, in this case. Relying on individual reports for things like traffic accidents can work, because you'll still get good coverage with few people actively reporting. But relying on it for supercharger occupancy is ridiculous. Might as well not have the feature.

I assume Tesla has some sort of remote monitoring on their superchargers. If they do, they could do their own very accurate SC conditions report, but unless someone else buys the data from them, no third party SC report is going to be accurate.

Remember, most cars are going to charge 20-30 minutes. If there are eight stalls, rotations happen on average about every 3 or so minutes. Waiting is uncommon anyway, and not near as devastating as some people imagine.
Secondly, the information about charging spots will be old news by the time you get there. If you're 20 miles from the charger, most everyone will have rotated out.
Thirdly, where ya gonna go if you see the charger is full? It's not like you choose another gas station. Chargers are maybe 100-150 miles apart, and if you're looking for a charger, you have no choice.

All this worry about charging information seems to be worthless.

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Exactly! All this theory about Supercharger real time info. In reality it is of very little to no use.

I almost always have the waze site up on my browser and know that if I drive by or happen to go through the drive of the nearby fast food restaurant, that my local SC registers me as "charging" on the browser.

Mr. Clown's answer is correct. There's both passive (presence) and active (queue) forms of data the web site collects. As it stands, the web site is far more popular on the east coast than the west (perhaps a reflection of waze usage?), so they get a more accurate picture of traffic at the superchargers.

The utility of this data is is left up to the user. I'll put it out there that data that doesn't tell me the exactly A,B, or C can still be useful in terms of reducing uncertainty and setting expectations. It's not unlike the waze incidents (e.g. a cop, hazard, or accident icon doesn't 100% mean something's really there ...but slowing down might be prudent).

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